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Location: Dallas, Texas Date: November 29, 1989 Story On November 29, 1989, David and Cynthia Cargill left their two daughters, eight-year-old Kate and six-year-old Erin, in the care of a babysitter overnight for the first time in their lives. But they had no reason to be worried on that quiet night in Dallas, Texas. David told the girls to be good and be in bed by 8:00, kissed them good-bye, said that he loved them, and left. "That evening we asked the sitter to stay that night because my husband always plays basketball on Wednesday nights and that particular night he had to go to work early and we knew he wasn't going to be home that evening and I was out of town on business that evening so we had to have a sitter. It was difficult for me as far as doing that," said Cynthia. She was apprehensive about leaving her children in the care of someone else. Kate, Erin, and the babysitter watched TV for a while. Around 8pm, the babysitter had the girls get ready for bed. "Kate and Erin were sleeping in the same room together, which normally is Erin's room, but since the babysitter was staying that night, she was going to sleep in Kate's room," said Cynthia. The babysitter put the girls to bed, tucked them in, and apparently shut the door to their room so she wouldn't disturb them because she wanted to stay up and watch television. Later that night, a fire broke out in the den. The Cargills had checked their smoke alarm just two weeks before, but on that night, it didn't work. The babysitter woke up when she saw the smoke and fire. The exploding windows triggered the burglar alarm, awakening Kate. She got out of bed and saw smoke coming in through the door. She touched the handle and it was hot. She yelled for Erin to wake up, crawled beneath the smoke to the window, and tried breaking it with her hand. It didn't work and she screamed as loud as she could for help. "Help, someone!" yelled Kate. A passerby noticed the blaze and ran to a nearby house where he woke Dwight Bookout "We heard a pounding on the door and by this time the smell was overwhelming. The fire was rapidly getting out of control." Dwight called Gay Patrick and asked her to call 911 and get assistance as quickly as possible. He knew the girls were in the house and his immediate concern was "My God, where are the children?!" Gay's call for help came in at 12:54am. "I thought 'How could this be happening?' It didn't seem like it was real, I thought I was having a bad dream," said Gay. "It was one of those things where you hope for a miracle". Emergency units from the Dallas Fire Department were immediately dispatched. Fire investigator Tom Owen was also sent to the scene "Anytime you have a fire in the house, children will intend to hide from it," he recalled. Meanwhile, Kate knew she needed something hard to break the window in order to get out, which she learned in school. She found a chair nearby, grabbed it, and broke the window with it. Even when Kate broke through the glass, a screen kept her and Erin trapped inside. The babysitter heard Kate's cries for help. She took off the screen and ran to the middle of the yard, but Erin wasn't with her. She ran back in to go get her. When she and Erin got out, they were scared and the whole house was in flames. Category:1989 Category:Texas Category:Fires Category:Kid Heroes Category:Article stubs